Scholarship contributed to refined research on fungi in birch seeds

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There is a new opportunity to apply for a grant for forest seed or plant production, regeneration methods or tree breeding. Last year, Kinga Stolarek received the grant to refine her methods for detecting fungi in birch seeds.

 

Kinga Stolarek is doing her PhD at the Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre at SLU in Alnarp. In the lab, she uses two methods of fungal identification: traditional culturing with Sanger sequencing and DNA metabarcoding. Her research aims to enable the detection of fungi already in the seeds to maximise germination. The fungi present in the seeds can also be carried to nurseries, where they may affect the seedlings. Therefore, identifying pathogens in the seeds could be crucial for the continued cultivation of birch and for finding the best breeding material.

– I am often asked why I research the regeneration of birch – it can regenerate by itself in the forest! But by planting birch, which is a fast-growing broadleaves tree species, we can use its significant breeding potential, which will be reflected in increasing productivity and quality of birch stands. In the same way, birch may become a commercially important tree species, complementing spruce in future forests affected by climate change. We observe more and more severe damage in spruce stands triggered by climate changes. Gaining one more species may be especially important for increasing diversity and resilience of Swedish forests.

For this to work, methods are needed to make cultivation efficient. Germination needs to be maximised, because this is the first step for efficient production of containerized birch seedlings.

The methods researchers use to detect pathogens have their pros and cons. One method only detects living and culturable fungal organisms, but may miss some of them; the other finds many different fungi but does not indicate which ones are alive. Thanks to the grant, Kinga can now use a third method: RNA extraction, which helps to detects non-culturable living fungal organisms. This method is complex and expensive but refines the results and complements the other two methods.

– RNA extraction can answer some more questions, says Kinga.

Her research project is part of a larger project, Trees for Me, a platform for Swedish researchers working to develop the use of fast-growing broadleaves trees. The knowledge from Kinga’s research will be shared with other researchers through this platform. She also meets with researchers from Nordic and Baltic countries each year to exchange knowledge and experiences.

 

Apply for the SNS and NordGen Forest scholarship Dec 15, 2024–Febr 15, 2025

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